Confused by freeview, freesat, youview etc

mcfisco

Re the channels on Freeview Vs Freesat

Be aware that most of the UKTV channels [Dave, Gold, Eden etc.] don't get carried on Freesat.
If they don't bother you, I'd choose the Freesat option every time purely for the resilience of the signal.

Yorkie1

I was told by Richer Sounds that if I went for the YouView option, I'd need to keep an eye on my broadband monthly maximum allowance - because the temptation is to just watch TV through that, which essentially involves downloading / streaming the programmes.

I have freeview plus a new humax pvr.

sjpkgp

Thanks everyone, I have temporarily done what enterprise suggested, and already knocked £30 off our monthly bill (I can't believe I didn't do this sooner !), and will also do the freeview and PVR suggested by Yorkie above but may go youview in the future (as I've got unlimited BB). To help me "decide" to stay, Virgin will come out and re-route two phone lines for free. Total is now £31 per month, with no contract, 60mb broadband, phone and TV with playback. I could probably shave another fiver off here and there, but our broadband is very reliable and I know the whole house would whinge if we lowered speed/capacity to save a few quid. Thanks to everyone who has replied, very useful to get views and advice. Sal x

kwikbreaks

The moral of this tale for all on any Virgin Media package is to call in and renegotiate at least once a year otherwise they won't drop their charges in line with new customer offers. Their basic TV is free if you take the landline as well as the broadband and that's only a few quid more than broadband only. The reason being they hope to make money on their expensive telephone charges.

It's all horses for courses though as I only take their broadband and have freesat for TV with Vonage for landline calls which is what works out best for me. No doubt younger folks with pricy mobile phone contracts wouldn't need or use any landline phone service at all.

Siouxsie32

Can I but in and ask a dumb question (or two)? If you have Freeview on your tv, what's the advantage of having a YouView box? I know it means you can pause, rewind and record live tv but is there more to it? Also, I assume an Ethernet cable has to be plugged into the back of the tv, but what if the tv doesn't have an Ethernet out port? The tv's about 5 years old, would that mean we couldn't use YouView?

Sorry for hijacking your thread but I was a bit confused

Cornucopia

Siouxsie32 wrote: »

Can I but in and ask a dumb question (or two)? If you have Freeview on your tv, what's the advantage of having a YouView box? I know it means you can pause, rewind and record live tv but is there more to it? Also, I assume an Ethernet cable has to be plugged into the back of the tv, but what if the tv doesn't have an Ethernet out port? The tv's about 5 years old, would that mean we couldn't use YouView?

Sorry for hijacking your thread but I was a bit confused

Youview is a smart PVR. So, it records TV as you said. In addition, if you connect it (the YV box) to broadband, it has the capability to access catch-up services at the BBC, ITV, C4 etc.

There is nothing special about this, really. It just puts everything in to one neat box, where otherwise you'd probably have a PVR and a separate PC or videogame console.

Chickabiddybex

What I do is I have Sky for TV (loads of great channels on the basic package and multiroom) which is about £30
Free installation.
It doesn't cost a huge amount more to get Internet (but I get it free from a neighbour so I don't need it) it is definitely cheaper than Virgin even with unlimited.
You shouldn't need anything else. Sky+ boxes let you pause, rewind etc and record loads. As for BBCi player etc you can get that on your PC, laptop, whatever for free anyway. You can also get it on a Wii or other games console like PS3 or Xbox. You can also watch Netflix and LoveFilm on most of those. For £6 a month you get even more access to TV shows and films. Seriously. Huge selections! All this for way cheaper than £85

almillar

Might also be worth mentioning (and I haven't seen it scanning this thread) that YouView is a Freeview*HD* PVR.

dori2o

My brother has a nice little internet TV box called a Roku. £40 from Currys.

He has a standard freeview set top box (no recording or catch up) and the Roku. If you have a wireless internet you connect the Rocu to get various other channels, plus it gives access to the catch up TV channels, netflix, etc etc, and it's subscription free.

It might not be exactly what you were looking for, but it may be something to think about.

-TangleFoot-

dori2o wrote: »

My brother has a nice little internet TV box called a Roku. £40 from Currys.

Note: more options here. The Ouya might be worth a look too.